This May Day, the Fight for the 40 Hour Workweek Returns
May Day, also known as International Workers' Day, is a celebration of the international labor movement and a way to honor the struggles of working people. In New York City, grassroots activists have used the day to bring awareness...
Compost is BIG in Queens
In celebration of Earth Day, we are highlighting a project that was made possible thanks to our Greening Western Queens Fund. North Star Fund is proud to be part of work that has made Western Queens greener, cleaner, and...
Let's Hear It for and Thank the Vendors
Street Vendor Project and VAMOS Unidos are grassroots community groups made up of street vendors organizing to protect the rights of small businesspeople struggling to make ends meet by selling goods on the streets of New York City. For years,...
Low-Wage Workers on the Rise
I recently attended Workers Rising: A Symposium on Low-Wage Worker Organizing in NYC, where my eyes were opened to the intolerable working conditions, wage theft, and poverty that many workers face in New York City's service sector. The symposium was...
Rebuilding in the Rockaways
Joseph McKellar is the Executive Director of Queens Congregations United in Action (QCUA), a federation of 40 congregations throughout Queens, Brooklyn, and Manhattan, working to develop grassroots leaders to move significant public policy change.Blanca Rodriguez is an immigrant mother of...
This Is Activism's Moment
Nearly 35 years ago, 28 young people sat down on a windswept February evening at New York City's Riverside Church to put in motion a very different kind of foundation. It would fund edgier work at the grassroots level. It...
Remembering Juan Baten
On Thursday January 24, 2013, over 80 Focus on the Food Chain members, friends and allies gathered on a frigid night on the sidewalk in front of Tortilleria Chinantla for a candlelight vigil to remember the life of Juan...
Communicating Candidly: Farmworkers Cause Philanthropists to Reflect on Truth and Trust
North Star Fund is a founding member of Community Food Funders (CFF), a philanthropic organizing project formed to provide information, resources and networking opportunities for funders in the New York, New Jersey and southern Connecticut region. CFF aims to...
Mobile 4 Advocacy: NYC's Shining Examples
Jeff Perlstein is Director of Strategic Engagment at ZeroDivide, an organization working to transform underserved communities through the strategic use of technology in ways that increase economic opportunity, civic engagement and healthy outcomes. North Star Fund, and representatives from two of our...
Who's Watching the NYPD?
John Blasco is the Lead Organizer at FIERCE, a North Star Fund Movement Leadership Grantee and a member organization of Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), of which North Star Fund is the fiscal sponsor. Through Movement Leadership, North Star Fund is...
